It was back in September that the Google Chrome team put an extensive post up heralding "packaged apps" that work with Chrome, which the team obviously felt could become a huge differentiator for Google's browser. "These apps are more powerful than before, and can help you get work done, play games in full-screen and create cool content all from the web," wrote the Chrome team. Since then, if you're a Chrome user, you may have tried some of these apps and experienced how they make the browser feel almost like an operating system underlying applications.

Now, there are lots of reports coming out that claim that Google plans to help developers port Chrome apps to other operating systems, ranging from Apple's iOS to Android. Some of the reports say we'll see the basic architecture of this concept arrive in January.